The Rumbling Teeth Of Fire

Dan Sartain, a native of Birmingham, Ala., has the piping hot motor of a Big Foot - the monster truck - and the insides of an untamed, bestial thing. Many of the songs that he writes are the equivalent of him standing on top of a building and beating his closed fists against his chest and roaring until it knocks all of the aircraft out of the sky. He's a man who, in taking all of his fiery behavior into account, refuses to be pushed around -- especially at parties or on the road. He shoots mental daggers, speaks up when speaking up is needed and gives people the bird it they deserve it.

It wouldn't be surprising if his normal body temperature was in the upper registers of 100 degrees Fahrenheit. He could live like that. He's got a slice of the devil roaming the streets inside his clothes, knocking over apple carts, throwing rocks into windows and keeping people up at night. The ape soul or the lost soul, perhaps they're all about the same thing.

Sartain is a fierce songwriter, who once did a leg of tour with the White Stripes through Canadian hockey arenas and got to see what it's like to tour as a great big machine. They saw Liv Tyler backstage at shows, surrounded by a bubble wrapping of security people and felt like imposters, in a way. They belong more in a shit bar with a bunch of outlaws and misfits, where the stage needs to be fronted by chicken wire to catch the flying glass bottles before they actually harm someone. It would just stir Sartain into more of a froth and blowing out of his mouth would be another piece of the furnace, the rumbling teeth of fire.